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LOL! You expect us to believe Chase's publicly announced reasons for ducking a political hot potato like trying Jeff Davis for his life on a charge of high treason? Bwahaha!

Well, I suppose we could believe your conspiracy theories.

Let's start with reality number one, as a basis of discussion: It would have been a spectacular political show-trial, right up there with the Nuremberg trials, and it would have sucked all the air out of the room for at least six months and more probably a year, just like Clinton's and Johnson's impeachment trials did.

That wasn't the age of CourtTV. The Johnson impeachment, from House vote to acquittal was only 10 weeks. The Military Commission for the Lincoln trial ran only 9 weeks before execution. A Davis trial would have been over in a matter of a few months.

Reality number two was, if they'd found him guilty and hanged him, they'd have created a martyr. And they'd likely split the Black Republicans down the middle while trying to make up their minds whether to hang him or not, with Beast Butler leading the foamers screaming for Davis's blood and the smart guys trying to soft-pedal everything.

I doubt that they would have hanged him. Jail in Fort Jefferson, something like that.

A Davis trial would have been over in a matter of a few months.

Well, then, Mr. Illicit Minor, does that mean that a Jeff Davis trial would not have sucked all the air out of the room and would not have been a political hot potato?

Speak up. Signify to us. Why didn't Chief Justice Salmon Chase lend his authority to a trial of Jefferson Davis?

Why didn't they try Davis for high treason? The war had lasted four years. There were nearly a million dead. Where's Jeff Davis's trial?

I doubt that they would have hanged him. Jail in Fort Jefferson, something like that.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That if any person or persons, owing allegiance to the United States of America, shall levy war against them, or shall adhere to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, and shall be thereof convicted, on confession in open court, or on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act of the treason whereof he or they shall stand indicted, such person or persons shall be adjudged guilty of treason against the United States, and shall suffer death.
1 Stat. 112 (30 Apr 1790)

The penalty for treason was death, not imprisonment. Secondly, the federal government would have to prove the Davis' allegiance was to the US, not to the Confederacy. That's why he was never tried for treason.